February
3rd,
2014
Response
to
Marshall
MchLuhan
The
Medium
is
the
message
Canadian
philosopher
of
communication
theory,
Marshall
McLuhan
(1911
-­‐
1980),
wrote
The
Medium
is
the
Massage:
An
Inventory
of
Effects
in
1967.
He
presented
a
new
media
and
technology's
theory,
breaking
with
contemporary
academic
standing.
In
this
assignment,
the
first
chapter
"The
medium
is
the
Massage"
will
be
discussed,
reflecting
on
the
artists'
role
in
society.
McLuhan
states
all
technologies
are
extensions
of
our
body;
speed,
structure
and
patterns
being
altered.
Introducing
the
individual
at
the
core
of
function
of
technology
permits
to
analyze
it
as
something
which
affects
directly
our
relationship
with
the
world.
Furthermore,
technologies’
value
does
not
depend
on
the
use
they
have
but
in
their
nature.
As
he
points
out,
criticizing
General
David
Arnoff,
it
does
not
depend
on
who
is
shooting,
to
say
that
guns
are
good
or
bad.
Guns
are
the
extensions
of
our
fists,
of
our
instinct
and
impulse
of
violence.
They
simply
"add
itself
on
to
what
we
already
are"
(McLuhan,
11).
The
author
starts
by
a
brief
recount
of
technologies
and
perceptions.
He
explains
how
mass
production
and
production
line
create
a
sense
of
fragmentation,
process
and
sequence;
cause
and
consequence
factors
are
present,
notion
of
place
and
space
are
evident.
Later,
with
electricity,
connections
happen
without
any
need
of
a
sequence,
so
electricity
originates
a
sense
of
"etherialization":
changing
patterns
of
perceptions.
Thus,
a
huge
brake
arise
in
our
perception
of
time
and
space.
The
link
between
cause
and
consequence
is
lost
automatically.
All
electricity
related
technologies
have
characteristic
of
immediacy
and
connectivity.
Time
and
space
are
being
displaced,
or
compacted,
becoming
ephemeral.
German
modern
philosopher,
Immanuel
Kant,
in
the
18th
century
declared
that
time
and
space
were
not
in
the
outside
world,
they
were
in
the
human's
brain.
They
were
innate
capacities
for
perceiving
the
environment.
That
affirmation
permits
to
reconsider
time
and
space
concepts,
by
making
them
anthropomorphic,
since
nor

1

animals
nor
nature
have
the
sense
of
time
and
space,
in
Kant's
view.
Referring
to
Kant,
time
and
space
concepts
are
not
absolute
and
they
can
change
in
time.
People
living
in
the
second
industrial
revolution
(or
the
technological
revolution),
in
the
late
19th
century,
experienced
a
change
in
their
vision
of
space
and
time.
With
railroad's
innovation,
for
example,
distances
became
shorter.
It
is
significant
that
artists
through
their
work
have
always
responded
to
changes
in
their
society
(
the
latter,
to
a
degree,
caused
by
technologies'
innovation).
Reactions
are
diverging,
some
artists
are
technophilic
and
others
technophobic.
Poètes
maudits
were
against
the
acceleration
of
society
and
were
building
a
sort
of
shelter
in
isolation,
drugs
and
in
their
work.
In
the
opposite
spectrum,
futurists
were
enthusiastic
about
society's
changes,
they
were
impassioned
by
energy,
speed,
engines,
cars,
arms
and
particularly
by
war.
Filippo
Tommaso
Marinetti,
in
his
Manifesto
of
Futurism,
in
1909
declared:
"We
say
that
the
world's
significance
has
been
enriched
by
a
new
beauty:
the
beauty
of
speed.
A
racing
car
[...]
is
more
beautiful
than
the
Victory
of
Samothrace."
(187).
Going
back
to
McLuhan
text,
he
declares:
"Cubism,
by
seizing
on
instant
total
awareness,
suddenly
announced
that
the
medium
is
the
message."
(13).
A
guitar,
a
vase,
a
woman
or
a
table:
the
content
of
the
painting
is
not
the
message.
What
is
then
the
message
of
a
cubist
painting,
it
may
be
asked.
Well,
cubists
were
not
concerned
with
components
in
the
symbolic
or
iconical
side.
They
were
reflecting
on
the
way
to
represent
objects
in
a
two
dimensional
space.
They
broke
with
the
Renaissance's
one-­‐point
perspective
and
the
Cartesian
plane.
It
is
not
anymore
about
the
window,
the
mirror,
but
about
"the
world
of
structure
and
of
configuration"
(McLuhan,
13).
Cubists
painted
an
object
from
different
perspectives
at
the
same
time,
the
picture
plane
was
considered
flat,
as
it
is.
They
were
not
pretending
any
more
to
create
an
illusion
of
space.
Cubist's
work
did
not
deal
directly
with
electricity
but
their
change
of
perception
of
time
and
space
had
to
do
with
that
technology.
"The
serious
artist
is
the
only
person
able
to
encounter
technology
with
impunity,
just
because
he
is
an
expert
aware
of
the
changes
in
sense
perception."
(McLuhan,
18).
So,
by
being
able
to
understand
the
motivations
behind
artists'
work
and

2

artists'
movements,
one
gets
to
understand
how
they
were
perceiving
body
and
mind's
perceptions
of
their
time.
Considering
contemporary
society,
electricity,
virtual
realities
and
high
technology
have
reached
a
climax
of
immediacy
and
illusion.
Individuals
are
immersed
in
a
world
of
mere
visual
chimeras.
They
might
be
comfortably
using
all
those
technologies,
unaware
of
what
they
loose
as
complete
human
beings.
McLuhan
tries
to
prevent
us:
"For
any
medium
has
the
power
of
imposing
its
own
assumption
on
the
unwary.
Prediction
and
control
consist
in
avoiding
this
subliminal
state
of
Narcissus
trance."
(15).
Contemporary
Narcissus,
contemplating
himself
in
a
shiny
flat
high
tech
screen,
will
drown
in
the
shadows
and
absence
of
sounds,
sensations,
smells
and
senses.
As
a
society,
if
we
don't
want
to
die
of
vanity,
paralysis
and
hypnosis,
we
need
to
be
aware
of
the
spell
of
technology.
McLuhan
already
warned
us,
in
the
late
60's,
but
it
seems
that
not
many
listened
to
him.